The Democratic Party of Korea added grounds on which a court can dismiss an indictment to a bill to revise the Criminal Procedure Act that it prepared to ban prosecutors from conducting direct investigations. Opposition figures said it is an attempt to eliminate President Lee Jae-myung's trial.
According to political circles on the 29th, the bill to revise the Criminal Procedure Act that passed the first subcommittee on bill review of The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, led by the Democratic Party, includes provisions expanding the grounds for a court to dismiss an indictment.
The newly added grounds for a dismissal ruling are "when an indictment was brought as a result of a gravely unlawful investigation" and "when an indictment was brought in a manner that markedly deviates from prosecutorial discretion."
The current Criminal Procedure Act specifies as grounds for dismissal of an indictment such cases as "when the court has no jurisdiction over the defendant," "when the procedure for bringing an indictment is null and void due to violation of statutory provisions," "when reindicted without important evidence after an indictment was withdrawn," and "when an indictment is brought again for a case already indicted."
From the opposition came criticism that this leaves open the possibility of dismissing the indictment in the president's trial. There were also concerns that terms in the provision such as "grave" and "markedly" are vague, and that there is no transitional clause excluding trials currently underway.
Joo Jin-woo, a People Power Party lawmaker on the judiciary committee, said on Facebook that day, "Even though the doctrines of excluding illegally obtained evidence and of abuse of prosecutorial power already exist, they created a separate path to end the trial itself without a substantive determination," adding, "When it seemed a special prosecutor's withdrawal of the indictment would be difficult, this time they created a detour for the court to dismiss the indictment."
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon also said, "The Democratic Party, seeing no possibility of acquittal in Lee Jae-myung's North Korea remittance bribery case and finding it difficult to withdraw the indictment, made a new indictment-dismissal law, saying, let's pressure the court to obtain a dismissal ruling," adding, "This is President Lee Jae-myung's plan C (dismissal of indictment), following plan A (withdrawal of indictment) and plan B (constitutional amendment for a second term), to avoid going to prison after his term."
The Democratic Party argued it merely codified accumulated precedents and that withdrawal of an indictment and dismissal of an indictment are entirely different. It also explained that because a court dismisses an indictment through a ruling, there is no possibility of arbitrarily eliminating the president's trial.
Kim Yong-min, a Democratic Party lawmaker on the judiciary committee, told reporters after finishing the agenda coordination committee that day, "Dismissal of an indictment is done through a court ruling, so it has nothing to do with withdrawal of an indictment," adding, "The requirements are wording crafted from precedents already accumulated by the courts."